Dashing debonaire.

Scott Schuman (the gentlemen to the far left) is The Sartorialist.  Well really Schuman is a photographer, he started his photo blog, 'The Sartorialist' photographing and documenting the styles of the chic and glamorous.  In doing so he became a commentator and connoisseur of fashion, art, and design.  He was voted by TIME magazine's top 100 design influencers.
I love this blog so much.  I think Schuman definitely has fine eye for fine, well made garments.  I can't tell you how many times the images he's captured have inspired me to experiment with my ensemble. 
And I love that he isn't a fashion snob because that shit is for the birds.  On Sartorialist you can find pics of fashion editors, stylish civilians, and glamorous grandmas, his work runs a complete spectrum.  That's refreshing considering most fashion arenas have an overtone of elitism. 
Schuman's blog also opened my eyes to the beauty of menswear.  The hope diamond of fashion is women's couture, but there is really something beautifully understated about menswear.  Menswear is all about a good cut.  A great cut is the difference between a whiff of second hand smoke and a hardcore heroin addiction--the difference between sugar and shit.
Besides appreciating menswear I really admire the gentleman in it.  I love a gentleman.  They are a dying breed but when you find one, hold on to him ladies. 
So today on The Sartorialist Schuman shared a few ideas about being a gentlemen...

One of the things I mentioned yesterday, was the "manner" of a person. "Manner" or "grace" is not something that you can learn from a book. Unfortunately, it is something you just have to be or to develop.

A great scene of modern grace on '30 Rock' the other day:

Liz and Jack went out to dinner at a very chic restaurant. As they sat down at the table, Jack immediately moved the candle from the center of the setting to the side of the table. Liz looked at him kinda funny, not understanding why he did that but, not really caring either. Later, however, when Liz reached across the table to steal some of Jack's food (as she always does), she realized he moved the candle so her sleeve wouldn't catch fire when she reached across the table. Jack's manner and grace were so attuned to her as a friend, that he knew her moves before she did. That tiny gesture ended up becoming the pivotal moment of the episode and changed the course of their business relationship.

I'm telling you guys again, women notice the small stuff. They notice the gentleness/gentlemenliness more than if you use the right fork at dinner. I'm a very lucky man, Garance notices every little kindness I offer her, she doesn't miss a thing. Knowing that makes it so much more rewarding to do even more little things for her. I'll be honest, my biggest obsession in life right now is not better shoes, more suits or a bigger career but, to simply be a more graceful man for my graceful woman.

Take it from a lady, this gentleman is right.  With that said, make a notation fellas, Valentine's Day is like next week. 

Deluxe, with fries.

Mandatory reading for all you label whores: "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost It's Luster" 

                                                                       by Dana Thomas.

This book is a true schooling on how little fashion houses sold their souls for a buck and sold you the ostrich satchel for twelve hundred bucks.
Dana Thomas, is a fashion writer for Newsweek.   She explores the evolution of luxury, beginning as something exclusive and elitist, and mutating to its current globalized state.  The basis of luxury lies in its rarity, less really is more.  So the fact that 40% of the Asian continent owns at least one piece of Louis Vuitton shoots rarity right in the ass.
Thomas argues more money is being made but mediocrity is at an all time high and prices are too.
She says, "Today the average handbag cost 10 to 12 times its production cost."
Commerce trumps art :-(

All Aboard!

In my daily perusal of Vogue.com, I ran across a making-of-video for Sean "Diddy" Combs's (aka Puffy), Vogue shoot. The shoot concept revolves around Puffy's upcoming album, 'The Last Train to Paris'. The idea is Puffy is on a train for 3 days and has a seductive (and I assume very naughty) encounter with a beautiful woman (model, Natalia Vodianova).  Of course the images produced are sexy and glamorous; very true to Puffy's aesthetic.
Shot by shutterbabe extraordinaire Annie Leibovitz, Puffy & Co. are old Hollywood meets ole Harlem, à la Casablanca noir. The whole Parisian noir aesthetic really seduces my imagination, it's clever and covertly sexy. Real sexiness happens between your ears...if I wore glasses they'd be totally fogging up right now.
I don't think the shoot is anything particularly revolutionary, but I do think it's a nice evolution from the first Puffy/Vogue collaboration a decade ago. Evolution is one of the essential elements to sustaining relevance, if you're not evolving what exactly are you doing?!

Swimming with sharks.

On February 1st Kelly Cutrone will be raising hell, I guess the devil really does wear Prada. Cutrone's new reality show, "Kell on Earth" is debuting next week on Bravo (kick rocks project runway!). From the look of the preview, she will be the next over-quoted reality-tv sensation. But like an actual real sensation, not like the sensationalism a la Jersey Shore. Kelly, although she looks like she hasn't slept since Jesus was a boy, is a true story.
"What the fashion world looks like and what the business is are two completely different things," say it again Kelly, say it again! This show will absolutely counteract all those nostalgic notions of fashion being "fabulous" and "glamorous"--Rachel Zoe deceived you.
Cutrone is whip smart, wickedly wry, and acutely insolent, this show is going to kick ass.